AN: Taylor James was a cool minor character in the series. This chapter is deep background. The story really starts at Jamie's fifth birthday party. It is Brucas endgame, but who knows what's going to happen along the way? As usual, I own nothing related to OTH.
Chapter 1
We've been studying in her bedroom. I mean, she's been studying. For some reason, she decided to take a high school math course, and that's been giving her quite a bit of grief. I was just reading Catcher for the tenth time, while listening to Jimmy Eats World . The plan was to study some, and then go have fun, maybe go to the Rivercourt, or have some ice cream, or even bum around at the riverwalk. But, after I close my book for the fifth time to take a peek at what she is doing, she's had enough.
She takes the speaker out of my ear and complains. "Luke, you're driving me crazy."
"Sorry. I'll stop, all right?"
She frowns at me. "No. I need to concentrate, and you're distracting me. I still have quite a bit of work. Just go home. I'll call you when I'm done, and we'll see if we can still do something."
I get up, and grab my stuff to leave. "If I'm not home..."
She cuts me off, a little impatient. "I know. The Rivercourt."
"That's right. Bye."
"Bye."
I close the door to her room and prepare to head downstairs when I hear soft crying from across the hall. I can easily identify whose room it's coming from by the "Keep out or Die!" sign. It's Taylor's.
I hesitate, thorn between leaving quietly and knocking. It's not like we're friends. She is the troublemaker, always fighting with Vivian, with Quinn and even sometimes with Haley. There's always drama around her. With the cheer outfits, the toned legs that seem go forever, the bright honey eyes, the boobs and the aggressive, stormy behavior... she scares me more than a little. But she's always been nice to me, in a distant sort of way. When she sees me, she smiles. When she goes by, she plays with my hair, and calls me "squirt". I can't really ignore it. I brace myself and knock softly. She yells with a broken voice: "Go away!"
I open the door cautiously and look in. She's staring angrily at the door, but when she sees me she tries to smile. What comes out is more of a grimace. She's wearing her cheer outfit, no shoes, and she is in bed, lying down on her side, a big tear stain on her pillow. "Hey, squirt."
I come in, closing the door behind me. I sit next to her in the bed and place my hand lightly on her shoulder. What could I say to her? I'm a scrawny, dorky eight grader and the top of my head barely reaches her eyes. She's a junior, queen of the high school. She dates college boys. Hell, she steals mighty Vivian's boyfriend and gets away with it.
"Hi." She keeps looking at me, frowning at my strange behavior, but soon whatever is hurting her takes over. She turns back inwards and starts sobbing against her pillow. I don't say anything, I just stay there, sitting next to her, and I caress her arm. I want to put my arms around her, but I'm not brave enough. Sometimes you just have to be there. I don't know long this lasts. Fifteen minutes, maybe more. Finally she quiets down, wiping the remaining tears with her arm. She sits up and looks at me. Suddenly she envelops me in a tight hug. With a kiss in my forehead she whispers. "Thank you, squirt." Then she gets up and shoos me out of her bedroom, closing the door behind me.
I never found out what was hurting her that day. Also, I couldn't say that things changed between us. But when she saw me, and she smiled, there was a little sweetness in her eyes that wasn't there before.
When we got to high school next year, I could see Hurricane Taylor in action first hand. She wasn't actually the queen of the high school. That was Morgan Finley, cheer captain, tall, blonde, beautiful, and mean as a snake. But Taylor was certainly in the running. The popular boys and the jocks worshipped her. Differently from Finley, who had a steady boyfriend, Taylor would go with whoever caught her fancy. And the big boys fought hard for her attention.
Freshman year was its own brand of nightmare for me and most of my friends. The upperclassmen would mostly leave Haley alone, as she was the baby sister of popular girls Quinn and Taylor, but that protection didn't extend to me, and certainly not to my other friends. Early in the year Morgan and a gaggle of cheerleaders, including Taylor, was enjoying inflicting a humiliating joke on Faith, a sweet girl and a very dear friend. I couldn't stand to see it and intervened, standing right on Finley's face and screaming insults at her.
From then on, Morgan and her posse, cheerleaders and jocks, including my beloved brother Nathan, would single me out for every humiliating prank, every joke and every bit of physical abuse their fertile minds could think of. I had the sympathy of my friends, but that didn't compensate for what I had to deal with.
Taylor wouldn't say anything. At first, she would just make a point to stay out of it. Later, a few times, she actually deflected the abuse, with a distraction or a joke, or a bit of flirting. Once, after a particular nasty prank left me sitting on the floor, with lime jello all over myself and my stuff, holding in tears that threatened to spill out, she came by and, without anyone noticing, squeezed my shoulder and whispered. "Hang in there, squirt. It will pass." Sometimes her discreet kindness was the only thing standing between me and a humiliating breakdown.
Once I managed to repay her some. I'd stayed at the library a couple of hours past last bell, lost in a Steinbeck novel. Heading home, as I turned a corner in one of the school's corridors, I saw Taylor rigid with anger, confronting one of the basketball players. The boy had grabbed her arm and he was shaking her, calling her a slut, and worse. She was screaming.
"Let me go, you fucking loser! You're hurting me..."
There was nobody around. That is, nobody but me. I'd grown a foot since last year, but I was still the just a scrawny dork. I couldn't really deal with the stupid guy as he deserved. But I saw that things were going to get worse fast and I had to do something. I ran towards them, and, ignoring their fight, I shouted. "Tay, please! Help! It's Haley. She's hurt. Please, come quick!"
The boy took his eyes off Taylor and looked at me with a murderous face. "Get out of here, dweeb! Can't you see we're busy?"
I got frantic. "No! I grab Taylor's other arm and start pulling. Come on Tay, she's hurt. She needs help!" When the boy wouldn't let her go, I put all my weight into a two handed shove into his chest. He probably had three inches and forty pounds on me, but I do have some muscle. My shove works. He takes two steps backwards and lets go of Taylor's arm. I don't miss a second, grab her arm again and start running, dragging her behind me. "C'mon Tay, fast!" I hear the boy yelling to my back. "You're gonna pay for this, dweeb. Just wait!"
We run around the building, and come out the back side. Once we're out we start walking.
She gives me a sideways look and smiles. "Haley is at home, isn't she?"
"I hope so."
"I'm not sure. You're either incredibly brave, or amazingly stupid. Probably both."
I think of what awaits me later and grimace. "I know."
"I could have handled that."
"I know that too."
She hums to herself a bit, an indistict tune. "How are you going home?"
"I have my bike."
She smiles and looks at the school. "I think my ride evaporated. Can you take me?"
Six miles with Taylor James on my bike? "Sure."
It's a bit rough going, specially with her arms around my waist, and her breasts pressing against my back. Eventually we make it to her street. About half a block from her house she tells me to stop.
I lean my bike against a tree, and try ho hide my erection, uselessly.
She smiles at me, checking me out, as it were, for the first time. She puts a finger lightly in my chest. "Right now you look like a scarecrow. But I think you're gonna be one hot dude in a little while."
I blush furiously. "Eh... thanks, I guess."
"Are you a virgin?"
I manage to blush even more. "Yes."
She waves her head. And mutters to herself. "Oh, baby sister. What's wrong with you?"
I protest. "She's my best friend! It's not like that!"
"She's got a crush on you, squirt. I assumed you felt the same way." She looks into my eyes, looking for something. "Well, maybe not."
I open my mouth to say something, but I think better of it and close it again.
She guesses what I was going to say anyways. "You're stuck on the blond stork, I know." She sighs. "Wake up, squirt. Haley is the best, and she likes you. You two would be perfect together. And you'd
make the perfect super-smart nerdy babies that their aunt would love to pieces.. She's the right one for you."
"I know she's perfect, Tay. But the heart wants what it wants."
She smiles. Ignoring my last comment. Her finger traces a fiery little line on my chest. "You're also very sweet, and you have the heart of a giant." She comes closer. "You know, if you weren't Haley's I would be sure to thank you properly."
I can't supress a little disappointment. "No thanks needed. You've been helping a lot at school"
"Luke, there's very little I can do. I don't know anyone who could take what they've been doing to you without breaking down. I have no idea where you find the courage to go to school every morning."
"All I have to do is look at my mother."
She nods. "You're right. She sets the bar on courage very high."
"It's true, Tay. You've really helped."
"Still..." She puts her hands on my face and pulls me for a very sweet, lingering kiss on the lips. My lips tingle as she breaks it up. "Even this maybe crossing a line, squirt. But it's the thank you get."
She sighs. "Soon Morgan will be too busy, and then gone, and so will I. Things will get easier. Take care of yourself, Lucas Scott. And watch out for my little sister while you're at it."
"You know I will."
"Bye."
I'm a bit sorry to see her walking away.
Things do get a little easier. The boy that was bothering her, a couple of days later someone finds a stash of steroids in his locker, and he gets expelled. The seniors do get too busy. I don't really speak to Tay again for nearly two years.
I'm sitting on the beach by myself, watching the sunset, when someone comes from behind, messes up my hair and speaks. "Hey, squirt!"
There's only one person in the world who calls me that. "Tay?"
I get up and turn to her. She is wearing a pair of tight little fuck me shorts, sports bra and running shoes without socks. Her long hair is tied in a ponytail. She is seriously sweaty, and panting a bit.
She smiles at me, a broad, happy smile that brightens the day. "You've grown! Jeez. I knew you'd end up hot, but give me a break! And I was thinking your brother was the town's best eye candy"
"Well, thank you." I check her out. "And you look like you just stepped out of a wet dream." She is very toned, with rock hard abs. A very sexy version of her sister.
She struts a bit, pleased. "I'm glad you like the goods. And I can see you acquired a little game too. Good going, squirt."
I frown a bit at her. "What are you doing here? What about college?"
Her smile gets a little fixed, and her eyes look distant. "College wasn't for me."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Well, don't be. Watching tired old man lecture and taking exams wasn't my thing. I like to have fun."
I think of Brooke, and the tat on my shoulder. "Fun is good."
"That's right, stud." She turns a little serious. So, you let her slip through your fingers. When they told me that she'd gotten married, I was certain it was you."
"Have you seen them?" She nods. "Once they met, it was like they were written in the stars. They fell completely, head over heels for each other. It was kinda fun to watch."
"Nathan was such an idiot."
"She changed him, Tay. Better yet, she cut through the crap our father did on his head and let the real Nathan show. And the real Nathan is a very nice dude."
"I've noticed." She gives a mischievous smile. "Did you know I was the one that popped his cherry?"
That surprises the hell out of me. And makes me a bit envious. "Really?"
"Oh yes. Freshman year. Party at the Scott beach house. He was drunk as a skunk."
"Does he remember?"
"Yes he does."
"What about Hales?"
"She doesn't know yet, but he's getting a little antsy with it. I think he's going to tell her."
"Well, good."
She looks a little surprised. "Why?"
"I'd rather not be in the position where I know this, and she doesn't."
She nods. "Fair enough. What about you? Are you still a virgin?" I shake my head. "Who?"
"Brooke."
"The little brunette doll? Good job! That one is a firecracker."
"Yes she is."
"What about the stork?"
"She is a friend."
"I see." She gets close. Close enough that I can smell her sweat and a whiff of Hales jasmin shampoo. "Are you with anyone?"
"No, but I'm kinda chasing someone."
"Brooke?" I nod.
"Hope you figure it out, squirt. You let my sister escape, but the brunette is a good one too. Under that cute, scatterbrained thing she does there's a core of steel and a great heart. Try to hold onto her." She starts running in place. "I gotta go."
"Bye."
She whispers in my ear. "I wish I'd popped your cherry instead of your brother's." She starts running.
I mutter to myself. "So do I." I shout at her back. "Will I see you around?"
She turns, running backwards for a bit and smiles. "Sure!"
I'd see her again. But it would take quite a while.
